4.04.2003

Honestly, you know what's strange? I've had my mind blown away twice in my life (I specify mind because my heart is devastated fairly regularly). Both times were thanks to physics.

1) Finding out that the inverse root of the electric and magnetic constants equals the speed of light. I now know the magnetic constant is picked so that this is true but before I knew that my mind was peeled back, grated and replaced in my skull. What the? Electricity and magnetism somehow come together and yield the secret speed of light? That was like finding out if you take a rabbit and breed it with a radish the rabbit will give birth to a pocket calculator.

2) Watching Maxwell's Equations go from four to two by using a gauge transformation. I don't think any art will ever demonstrate an equal elegance. If math is simply the language of nature, then physics is its poetry. It was a moving experience. 99.9% of people probably think I'm some alien for getting emotionally involved in math. Maybe they're right but I feel that I have an appreciation for these things and I understand what went into making that leap. It's like watching someone blowing a bubble with bubble gum for the first time. "You can do THAT!?! I thought it was just for chewing!!" The universe is beautiful in so many ways I fear we will never know them all. That, my friends, is tragedy.